To the Moon and Back
by glen125th
Summary: The Warden tires of her life and memories at Camp Green Lake. One-shot; based on the song "To the Moon and Back" by Savage Garden.


Disclaimer: I don't own Holes by Louis Sachar or the song "To the Moon & Back" by Savage Garden. I'm still working on a couple of other fanfiction that I haven't finished in a long, long time, so I'll probably have them all finished and posted around May or June. Summer, whoo!

* * *

Looking around this God forsaken camp made her shudder. Everybody hated it here, especially the campers, but they didn't now how much she despised it there as well. She loathed it so much more.

She closed the curtained to the dirt-kissed windows, and turned away from the depressing sight. She pulled on a pair of her boots and a cowboy hat over her scraggly red hair and went outside for a little monthly inspection, pleased to know that none of the males there would be expecting her to come out.

As she slowly drove by the hole-digging boys, there was a variety of mixed feelings. Some of them whistled obnoxiously, others cursed, some continued digging, and the rest of them took off their caps as if saluting. She was used to it already. Disrespect at a boy's detention camp was nothing rare, but she had always told herself that if any of them crossed the line, snake venom was always waiting in a nail-polish container back at her cabin.

She bored herself to death as boys scurried away from her presence. Her boots made a tapping sound every time they hit the ground, occasionally kicking a rock or two across the ground. Everything was the same as a month before and she wondered to herself why she had bothered coming that way.

_She's taking her time making up the reasons  
To justify all the hurt inside_

Nothing was ever going to change there—a new camper or two may come every few months or so, but even then, she didn't know any of their real names.

"Hey Lou," the counselor of E tent greeted, tipping his cowboy hat to her.

She glared at him in return and he backed away slowly, off to scold more boys.

Nobody liked her that much there, she knew it too.

The counselors—all men, smiled to her face so that they could later rant about her being a bitch behind her back without any suspicions.

Especially that Marion; insisting that everybody call him Mr. Sir. At times, he even acted as though he _owned _the camp. She blamed him, mostly, for her misery at Camp Green Lake. He knew about her, but he spread it around like a wildfire. That was mostly the reason why she kept herself isolated in her cool, air-conditioned cabin; away from all the heat, holes, and drama.

_Guess she knows from the smiles and the look in their eyes  
Everyone's got a theory about the bitter one  
_

Of course, there was really no reason to hurry herself around the camp. It belonged to her, after all. Nobody could tell her what to do.

Nobody except her parents and grandparents of course. She never got to know her grandmother that well, but her grandfather was horrible. He'd make her dig every day of every week; after school, before school; even on Christmas. That would be what he would call his "best present yet". Her dad, she believed, loved her and had good intentions when he told her to listen to her mother. He drifted away over the years though, and he stopped talking to her completely once she was sixteen, leaving her only parent; her mother. Her mom wasn't at all the parent that Lou wanted. Sometimes it even seemed as though she loved the holes more than her. It was thoroughly heartrending.

It didn't matter anymore, though. The both of them were all the way in Florida, living their lives, probably going to die any day. Good riddance. Let's find somebody willing to pay for _their _funeral. Once Lou got her hands on the reassure that her granddad kept jabbering about, she was not going to spend it for her parents.

It was hers. She deserved it.

And once all the glory was hers, she'd go off and buy herself a mansion in California; right smack dab in Malibu. She'd willingly and happily leave the juvenile delinquents and the counselors here all together to rot in their blistering hell.

_They're saying, "Mama never loved her much"  
And, "Daddy never keeps in touch  
That's why she shies away from human affection"   
But somewhere in a private place  
She packs her bags for outer space  
And now she's waiting for the right kind of pilot to come_

Maybe then she could go back to Will. She smiled to herself, recalling the tall, dark, and brooding counselor. That was the only thing that really kept her at the camp—the C-tent counselor. He was possibly the only person there who really respected Lou. She didn't know where he went, exactly. One day, he just packed his bags and left. But she stayed there, not knowing what she was really supposed to be doing. He moved away, leaving her with Mr. Thin-ass-danski.

Just as she passed by group D, there was Mr. Pendanski, with his stupid sunburned nose, waving at her. She shuddered and went in the opposite direction.

_  
And she'll say to him_

_I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be...  
If you'll be my baby  
Got a ticket for a world where we belong  
So would you be my baby?  
_

Sometimes, it felt as though they didn't really need her at the camp. Leave it to Marion and it would flow exactly the way is was at the present time. All that really needed to happen were the boys getting up at 4:30, eat breakfast, dig, mooch around, sleep, and repeat. It was a never ending cycle for them and she could feel their pain just fine. But they thing was, she didn't _want _to feel their pain. She couldn't relate to them, need to know what happened to them before camp, or talk to them. It just wasn't the way things worked around the place.

_  
She can't remember a time when she felt needed  
If love was red then she was color blind_

If she hadn't been there, nobody would notice. Most of the counselors were escaped convicts that found their way to the camp. That was the only reason she probably had employees. She was surrounded by murderers, rapists, and drug-dealers.

_All her friends they've been tried for treason  
And crimes that were never defined  
_

They were all emotionally and physically the same: hard-headed, hard-handed, and hard-hearted. Camp Green Lake was the emotionally emptiest place on earth. You couldn't rely on anybody there and no matter how much she might've seemed to enjoy herself with steak dinners, air conditioning, shade, and clean clothes, she wasn't happy. She was no freer than the campers; they just couldn't see it.

Maybe it was time to leave; time to fulfill what _she _wanted.

_I've always wanted to become a doctor, _she told herself as she watched a group of boys beating up a smaller one. "You jackasses, leave him alone unless you want to be diggin' another hole!"

"What you gonna do bout it, grandma?" a fat, blonde boy asked, smirking insubordinately.

She laughed and replied, "I may not dig the holes, but I sure can rip another hole in your ass, boy!"

They winced and threw the skinny boy on the ground, slouching away.

_She's saying, "Love is like a barren place,  
And reaching out for human faith  
Is like a journey I just don't have a map for"  
So baby's gonna take a dive and  
Push the shift to overdrive  
Send a signal that she's hanging  
All her hopes on the stars  
What a pleasant dream _

The boy looked up at her, with wide, gray eyes and said in a low voice, "Thank you."

She stared back down at him, and didn't reply. Hell to this. At that precise moment, she realized that all her emotions, anger, hate, sadness, and happiness came in a whole. Her throat felt tight as she made her decision.

"Where you goin'?" Mr. Sir asked as she stormed into his office, grabbing a pack of coke from the fridge.

"Away."

That was the last thing she ever said to anybody at the camp.

_  
She's sayin_

_I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be...  
If you'll be my baby  
Got a ticket for a world where we belong  
So would you be my baby?_

If her parents knew what she was doing, they'd damn her for it. Damn her to hell and then disown her. It didn't matter anymore; she got into her car and drove out, never looking back at Camp Green Lake.

_Mama never loved her much  
And, Daddy never keeps in touch  
That's why she shies away from human affection  
But somewhere in a private place  
She packs her bags for outer space  
And now she's waiting for the right kind of pilot to come  
And she'll say to him _

She was leaving for good, no regrets or second thoughts.

How far would she go?

To the moon?

What would they all do once they realized that she left them all, along with her troubled memories? Would they mourn and pray that she'd come back?

They'd laugh.

"Good riddance and God damn you, Lou Walker."

_She's sayin_

_I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be...  
If you'll be my baby  
Got a ticket for a world where we belong  
So would you be my baby?_

_I would fly to the moon and back if you'll be...  
If you'll be my baby  
Got a ticket for a world where we belong  
So would you be my baby?_

As the Warden rolled down her window, she pulled her ribbon out; she set her red hair free, along with her spirit.

* * *

I was just in the mood to write something like this, so chya. I love you. 


End file.
